Change
by leechi nut
Summary: It is often the quiet, ordinary moments that change us the most. RobRae. Triple shot.
1. Afternoon

_Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. They are the property of DC Comics and Cartoon Network._

: Afternoon : Cyborg :

Rae cornered him in the kitchen, drinking orange juice like he always did at precisely 3:15 p.m. The time was 3:36:02, though. "You're different."

He nearly choked on his glass of vitamin c. I snorted, then ducked behind the couch. Our leader spilling o.j. down his shirt in surprise was a sight to be treasured, and secretly stored on disk for future blackmail. Fortunately for me, his hacking and sputtering covered both my laugh and the whir of the tower's surveillance camera as I had it transmit the past few seconds of footage to my computer.

"B-beg your pardon?"

"You're different, Robin."

He wriggled his eyebrows suggestively and smirked at her--"Well, they do call me Boy Wonder"--as he put the carton back in the fridge. I nearly groaned. Goth girl wanted to, as well--I saw her eyebrow twitch in a way it often did in BB's presence. But leader boy's cockiness easily slid into gentle and genuine interest. He pulled out a stool for her, dragged his own seat alongside hers, and cocked his head slightly toward Raven. "Different how?"

She ran a hand through amethyst locks. "Still. You're still now."

"And here I thought I was a pretty active guy," he smiled. Funny how Robin can push her buttons like that when she would have thrown the green bean out a window by now.

"Still inside. Enough to tease instead of brood." She looked the young man beside her up and down and with utmost seriousness asked, "You're not turning into Beast Boy, are you?"

He burst out laughing--I barely contained my own--at which his companion scowled fiercely and pressed on, an almost desperate edge to her usual monotone: "You don't pace. You don't toss. You don't turn. You don't scream in the night anymore. You're different. You're still. You're not making this easy."

"Change never is." His hand reached out to hers where it was resting on the countertop. His ungloved fingers brushed hers for just a second before she jerked them away. His lips quirked in a flash of combined hurt and understanding and hope. He quickly downed the remainder of his juice, hopped off his stool, and made his way toward the door.

Behind his back, Rae turned her hand over to stare at the spot where their fingers had touched.

Just before exiting, Robin turned, caught her eye, and offered, "You're right. If you need that: a refuge, a... stillness... in the night, you can come to me. We can change."

For a moment after he left, she just stood there. "Change..." And she phased through the floor, leaving me blissfully unpunished for my inadvertent eavesdropping.


	2. Night

_Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. They are the property of DC Comics and Cartoon Network._

: Night : Raven :

It was quiet and I wanted to change. My breath quivered in my chest. The ground seemed to vibrate ever so slightly with me on the edge of the world. And I was afraid to change.

There was the boy, sleeping on the bed--vulnerable--with a bed sheet tangled around his legs. He no longer wore the uniform in his sleep. He no longer wore the mask. He no longer wore the gel. Instead he lay in only a pair of boxers and a cotton sheet with closed eyes and dark lashes and messy, ebony tangles against the pillow. Vulnerable.

And here I was, standing very still in the shadows of his room and watching his very still breathing on the bed bathed in moonlight. And I felt very awake and alive and nervous and I swear I could feel every molecule in my body pulsing, waiting, hoping, and fearing. I knew that his stillness was very different from my own. He used to be a shuddering string like me, but for some time now, he has been truly still.

I want that.

I inhale slowly. The first, perhaps, of an ocean swell instead of the twittering splash of rapids I have been until this moment of this night of my life.

He told me I could come. He told me he would be a refuge for me. He told me he would be a stillness and a safety from the tremors of the night.

Slowly, I strip. Out of the cape, carefully unfastening the broach so as not to prick my fingers. Out of the belt, careful not to jangle it, not to break the silence. Out of the boots, careful to set them side-by-side next to the neat little pile of my things. And then, in one careless tug, out of the leotard.

Now is the time to be daring, to be vulnerable, to change.

Clad in only my underwear and my bra and my short violet hair and large violet eyes, I step into the light. I step up to the bed. I slide onto it. The bedsprings creak ever so slightly. And the boy opens his eyes.

I am startled by purest blue. I shiver for a second, my breath hitching, before the tidewater pulls me back out to sea. His eyes are still and crystalline as a lake. And he offers me a slow smile, riding on the ocean rhythm of his breathing.

I offer a slight, grateful quirk of my lips. Perhaps in time, when I am truly still too, I will smile at him, and it will be sunlight instead of moonbeams. But for now, this will do.

I settle down next to him on the bed, undisturbed by the sound of the coils, close to him, facing him, but not touching. Gently, he lays his hand over mine. His eyes are questioning, and a cloud racing over the moon outside gives the impression of a wave cresting in his irises.

Now is the time to be daring, to be vulnerable, to change.

I turn my hand over in his, our fingers interlacing in the most chaste and significant of ways. Still smiling, he closes his eyes, dark lashes fluttering down against a pale cheek. And as my eyelids mimic his, I feel that cool calm sweep over me.

Now is the time to change.


	3. Dawn

_Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. They are the property of DC Comics and Cartoon Network._

: Dawn : Robin :

I wake up with a smile on my face and my fingers entwined with another's. _Raven_ is lying next to me. In my bed. Half naked. It's a good morning.

For a long time now, something has been growing between us. Something unnamed and good. Something like the long slow thaw from winter into spring. Something that you only really notice when the birds you had forgotten ever existed suddenly return or when you are startled to rediscover a green cricket on the stairs outside. This morning is a new shoot of grass under an early spring sun.

My smile broadens and I long to trace her jaw and run my fingers through her silken hair. But I could no more rush this than make it June in February. And I am content with that, with these slow tai chi movements between us two on a dew covered lawn.

Maybe I will suggest that when she wakes. We could go practice by the shore. I know how she loves the ocean. Qishi, yema fenzong, baihe liangchi--

I brake off from reciting the basic forms; no need to get too many steps ahead of myself, here. Lately, I've been working hard at enjoying the present instead of constantly trying to plan out my life like an elaborate game of chess. And looking at the girl presently asleep at my side, what's not to enjoy?

I crack another smile. Egads, I seem to be doing that a lot this morning. I half want Raven to wake up, just so she can arch an eyebrow and ask in that monotone of hers, 'What _are_ you grinning about, boy blunder?' to which I would reply, 'You, princess' and--

And I'm doing it again. I settle back down on my pillow, blowing a stray hair out of my eyes, only to have it fall back into the same annoying position a moment later. Ah, well. I stare at our linked hands and absently rub my thumb over hers, marveling at the smooth texture of her skin under mine. Another slow smile breaks over my face.

"What _are_ you grinning about, boy blunder?" Her voice washes over me like a wave, at once startling and refreshing.

My eyes dart up to her face. Her wide purple eyes sparkle in the 6 a.m. sunlight streaming through my windows. Her slight smile is part shy and part amused. Not for the first time, I wonder where exactly the line between empathy and telepathy is. I squeeze her hand slightly. "You, princess."

A blush spreads across her pale cheeks. "Robin--"

"Rae." She tries to look cross, but I can tell she really doesn't mind the nickname. "Wanna do some tai chi after breakfast?"

She thinks for a moment, then nods once. "Mm."

I smile and stare at her. The moment doesn't last long enough to become awkward. "Well, turn around, bird brain," she says with a twirl of her her free hand.

I laugh mischievously, at which she rolls her eyes, and I obediently disentangle my hand from hers and turn over.

The bed springs creak slightly at her movement, and I hear her padding across my carpet to the pile of clothes she left on my floor.

"Robin." Her voice is soft, and I turn my head back toward her. My testosterone levels jump at the sight of my scantily clad teammate--the loosely clutched cape only does so much to hide her curves--but even that view is secondary to the expression on her face. She wears the same small, sweet, genuine smile from last night. "Thank you."

At that, she is enveloped by the shape of a large black bird and disappears down through my floor. As I get up out of my bed to shower and dress before going down to the kitchen to maybe make some waffles, I smile. It's a very good morning.


End file.
